New Delhi:

On the occasion of Doctor’s Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said his government is fully committed to improving the health infrastructure in India and ensuring doctors get the widespread respect they deserve.

July 1 is observed as the National Doctor’s Day to commemorate Bidhan Chandra Roy, a renowned doctor who served as West Bengal chief minister too, and whose birth and death anniversary fall on this day.

In a post on X, PM Modi said, “Greetings on #Doctors Day. This is a day to honour the incredible dedication and compassion of our healthcare heroes. They can navigate the most challenging complexities with remarkable skill.” “Our Government is fully committed to improving the health infrastructure in India and ensuring doctors get the widespread respect they deserve,” he said.

In another post on X, the prime minister hailed chartered accountants for their “vital role” in shaping the country’s economic landscape.

“Happy Chartered Accountants Day! CAs play a vital role in shaping our economic landscape. Their expertise and strategic insights are beneficial for businesses and individuals alike,” Modi said.

“They also contribute significantly to economic growth and stability. They are equally integral to our financial well-being,” he said. 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

A doctor should not use an unusually large signboard and write on it anything other than his name, qualifications, titles, specialty or registration number, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has suggested, saying his prescription papers should also have the same contents.

It is improper to affix a signboard on a chemist’s shop or in places where he does not reside or work, the NMC’s Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) said in its E-Book: “Professional Conduct Review – Lessons from Case Archives”.

The book also highlighted that trust deficit in the doctor-patient relationship leads to litigation against the doctors and emphasised that the most common cause of complaints against doctors is due to a communication gap.

The commission stated that care should be taken not to mislead the public through signboards, visiting cards, announcements etc.

Medical practitioners may acquire skills and training in various areas related to a particular field, but the use of the title ‘consultant/specialist’ should be restricted to those who are qualified in the particular speciality, it said.

As an appellate body, the Ethics and Medical Registration Board of the NMC has been hearing cases of misconduct and passing judgments.

The need to disseminate the learnings from the complaint cases against doctors was felt right from the beginning, Dr Yogender Malik, editor of the booklet and member of the Ethics and Medical Registration Board of the NMC, said.

The thought was shared with the board and a group of experts was formed.

They worked very hard, going through hundreds of pages of each case and summarised them without losing the essence of the case and the message, he stated.

The case studies in the book show that it is very difficult for a patient to differentiate between ethics, conduct and negligence, the NMC said.

Doctors too feel that patients have no right to complain unless there is harm, the NMC stated.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The issue of drug overdose has become a persistent concern on American streets in recent times. Data by US federal government indicates that a drug overdose claims one life every five minutes in the country. Now the flesh-eating “zombie drug” is causing alarm on the US streets, literally rotting people’s bodies, and medical professionals appear to be struggling to effectively combat its effects.

“Zombie Drug”, as tranq is known in the US, is a drug used as a tranquillizer on cows and horses. It is flooding the country, with people procuring it through illegal means. Dealers often mix it with other illegal drugs like fentanyl and heroin.

Tranq is posing a significant challenge for medical experts as it has overshadowed the other drugs coming into the country through illicit routes. This is adding complexity to nearly every facet of treatment and rehabilitation, making it exceedingly difficult for medical professionals to effectively address the issue.

“The clinical picture becomes much more diabolical, a lot harder to follow, and a lot more can go wrong” when tranq is involved, Dr Paolo Coppola, the board-certified co-founder of Victory Recovery Partners in Massapequa Park, told The New York Post in a recent interview.

Overdoses involving xylazine are much harder to treat, Dr Coppola said, because the miracle opioid overdose reversal drug Narcan doesn’t work on the sedative.

“When an addict uses a speedball of cocaine and heroin, we can deal with that without a problem. You reverse the heroin so they start breathing again, and you wait for the cocaine to finish up,” he said.

“Xylazine doesn’t work that way,” the doctor continued. “When they come to the emergency room, you fully expect them to wake up when you push the Narcan… but all of a sudden it’s not really working; they’re not waking up.”

Dr Coppola explained that the existence of tranquillizers frequently prompts doctors to turn to substitute medications as a means to stabilise a patient’s diminishing blood pressure or rapidly declining heart rate.

“We think, ‘Wait a minute, he’s on suboxone and he’s on a good enough dose, so why is he still irritable and anxious? Why is his blood pressure up? Why is he having seizures?’ Dr Coppola said, referring to the medication used to treat narcotic dependence.

“If they’ve been using xylazine long enough with their fentanyl, they’ll have withdrawal effects from the xylazine, which screws us up.”